If this week has been hard on you…

If this week has been hard on you, please know you are not alone. The words which follow, may trigger, but we want to reach out. For hundreds of thousands of women (and men) the confirmation hearings have been hard. They have connected us with painful places and emotions. Sometimes you will not even have understood why you have tears rolling down your face or anger in the pit of your belly. Please know, you are not alone.

I have heard mean-hearted comments about our Church. Usually they come from seeing the buildings and knowing about our budget. What these comments do not take into account are the stories of the people who make up our community. Somehow all these lives and stories come together to make Church, to worship God and to try our hardest to be faithful to Jesus and his teaching.

We know it is not enough to give platitudes. We have to back our faith with action and we have to support, carefully, those who feel that they cannot hold faith or find trust difficult at the moment. This week, many will have asked painful questions. This week may have taken you to places where you are alone, afraid, angry and, even, self-destructive. This is not unusual, you are not weak and you are not alone. None of your clergy can fix this, all of your clergy are available to you.

May you feel the presence of the God who knit you together, and the blessing of God be with you today, and in the days to come.